Today in Tribe History: October 11, 1948

The Cleveland Indians are champions of the baseball world for the second time in club history as they held on to defeat the Boston Braves by a 4-3 final at Braves Field.

Bob Lemon earned his second win of the series with seven and one-third innings of work on the mound. Boston’s Bill Voiselle was tagged with the loss despite the quality start on the mound. He allowed three runs on seven hits over seven innings but left trailing.

Lou Boudreau gave the Indians the lead in the top of the third. Dale Mitchell led off with a double to left and, after a fly out by Larry Doby, Boudreau doubled Mitchell home with a shot to right. The Braves struck back against Lemon in the bottom of the fourth, as Bob Elliott reached on a single and moved to second two batters later on a walk from Bill Salkeld. Mike McCormick’s single to center scored Elliott to tie the game at one. After a walk to Eddie Stanky to load the bases, Lemon retired his counterpart Voiselle on a grounder to second.

Joe Gordon will tip the score back in Cleveland’s favor in the sixth with a leadoff homer. Thurman Tucker walked and moved to third with one out on a single from Eddie Robinson and Jim Hegan grounded into a fielder’s choice that scored Tucker to give the Indians a 3-1 lead.

Future Hall of Famer Warren Spahn replaced Voiselle on the mound for the eighth inning and after retiring Gordon, gave up three straight singles to Ken Keltner, Tucker, and Robinson, the latter of which knocked in Keltner with an important fourth run. Lemon continued his work in the bottom of the inning but loaded the bases around a line out and departed for Gene Bearden, the rookie left-handed knuckleballer. Bearden allowed a sacrifice fly to pinch-hitter Clint Conatser and an RBI-double to pinch-hitter Phil Masi to make it a 4-3 game with two standing in scoring position. With the pressure on, Bearden got McCormick to ground back to the mound to end the inning and the last viable Braves threat.

Spahn struck out the side in the top of the ninth, but Bearden faced the minimum in the bottom half to end it. A leadoff walk from Stanky was erased on a double play pop up and Tommy Holmes was retired on a fly to left to end it.

The Indians missed a chance to win the World Series at home in Cleveland the previous day with Bob Feller on the mound, but the Tribe allowed six runs in the seventh of an 11-5 loss.